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Hong Kong’s Bowlers Shine in Win Over Kenya

Hong Kong squared their two match tour of Kenya with a 39-run victory in the second ICC World Cricket League Championship match in Nairobi. A blistering 78 off 68 balls from captain Babar Hayat paved the way for the visitors in a rain-reduced limited-overs match.

After a delayed start – Hong Kong were 25.1 overs into their 31-over innings when the rain cut them short on 148-4. Chris Carter supported Hayat with 41 in a 119-run stand for the second wicket.

The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method adjusted Kenya’s target to 173 to win off 25 overs and they appeared well on track after a flying start from openers Alex Obanda (39) and Irfan Karim (33) who raced to 70-0 after 10 overs, but the introduction of spin turned the game for Hong Kong.

Nadeem Ahmed (3-23) struck first with the score on 79 and three further scalps to Ehsan Khan (3-12) saw Kenya wobble to 89-5. There was a brief fightback, but Tanveer Ahmed’s accuracy with his yorkers at the death netted him three wickets as Hong Kong dismissed Kenya for 133.

Coach Simon Cook was a relieved man, but was still hurting from Friday’s loss.

“We’ve not got the result we wanted from the tour but pleasing to get the win today and still keep ourselves in the mix for the ICC World Cricket League Championship,” Cook said. “Kenya got off to a very good start in their innings so it was pleasing to see the energy of the guys remain high and to come back and win was a good effort. We need to be more consistent going forward if we want to challenge the top of the table in this competition.”

Captain Babar Hayat, whose contribution with the bat was vital once again, was still searching for improvement in his own game. “I’m pleased that as captain I led from the front today and that’s what I need to do,” Babar said. “I don’t think I am playing my best yet, there is still more improvement to come from me – I’d have liked to have made a hundred today and I want to set the bar higher for myself. I’m really pleased that we won this game and proud we could get this win for Hong Kong.”

Additional reporting and image: HK Cricket

Russia Thump Hong Kong to Win Cup of Nations

Russia’s 27-0 victory over hosts Hong Kong secured their second straight Cup of Nations title after the defending champions won all three matches beating Zimbabwe (19-15) and Papua New Guinea (49-19) earlier in the week. The score line flattered the champions to a degree with the game evenly contested apart from the first and last ten minutes of the game.

Early nerves saw Hong Kong concede a 12-0 advantage in the opening quarter as Russia kept the ball in the forwards, capitalising on their size their opening drives were rewarded with two tries inside the opening ten minutes.

No.8 Pavel Butenko barrelled over the line from in close to score Russia’s first try in the seventh minute. Fly half Yurii Kushnarev was off with his conversion, but would get a second chance three minutes later after flanker Tagir Gadzhiev charged down a poor Hong Kong clearance kick on the try line before diving on the loose ball for his side’s second try in the tenth minute.

Kushnarev’s conversion extended the margin to 12-0 and Hong Kong were never able to close the gap. Kushnarev added a penalty late in the half as the game tightened up to give Russia a 15-0 margin at the break.

“I didn’t think Russia were 27 points better than us,” said Hong Kong coach Leigh Jones after the match, “but if you give them a 12 or 15 point start that is normally how it ends up. Ultimately, against quality teams like Russia if you make silly errors or bad decisions, you get punished, and that is what happened in the first 15 or 20 minutes.”

Left with much work to do after the opening quarter, Hong Kong settled into its patterns and started to show what it was capable of, but despite creating several scoring opportunities Hong Kong couldn’t capitalise as the hosts struggled in the accuracy stakes.

Hong Kong upped the pressure in the second half but the Russians boxed clever with Kushnarev and fullback Ramil Gaysin demonstrating some strong tactical kicking skills to keep Hong Kong moving backwards.

With Hong Kong trailing late in the game, Jones emptied his reserves bench and the hosts lost some of their shape, conceding two tries in the final ten minutes.

Winger Denis Simplikevich collected both tries against the run of play with his first coming in the 70th minute and his second on the stroke of full-time. Kushnarev slotted the second conversion to extend the visitors margin to 27-0 as the hooter sounded for full-time.

“While it is a 27-0 thumping at home, I’m not too despondent, because I am seeing signs that we are going in the right direction,” said Jones. “At times we had the Russians out on their feet, but we couldn’t ram that advantage home and turn that pressure into points.”

“We are developing a style of play that I think suits Hong Kong and we just need to keep working hard to be able to stick with that style for longer periods and under pressure,” Jones added.

A delighted Russia captain Vasily Artemyev gave full credit to Hong Kong saying: “The final was challenging as expected and I’m pleased at the result. Hong Kong is making progress. We got a few good scoring opportunities early on by keeping it tight, but in open play they are as strong as anyone we face.”

“They are hard to defend and hard to break down because they have a lot of speed and play very wide. But we stuck to our game plan and were more clinical than in our first two games,” added Artemyev.

The tournament will aid Russia’s build-up for the European championships early next year.

“Hong Kong play an interesting type of rugby and something we would expect from teams like Belgium, Spain and Germany in the European Cup so this competition is really helpful for us,” Artemyev added.

Tonight’s bonus point win sees Russia finish at the top of the table on 14 points, followed by Hong Kong (10), Zimbabwe (7) and Papua New Guinea (0).

Zimbabwe outran and outmuscled Papua New Guinea this afternoon, extending a 13-8 half-time lead to a final 38-11 victory.

The Papuans took an early lead after a penalty from fullback and captain Tisa Kautu, but Zimbabwe reclaimed the lead after No.8 Njabulo Ndhlovu’s try in the 7th minute. Winger James Lumaris pulled Papua New Guinea level in the 19th minute, but Zimbabwe built steam from then on, with a try from winger Tafadzwa Chotokwindo and a penalty from fullback Lenience Tambwera, giving them a 13-8 lead at the break.

The second half was one-way traffic as Zimbabwe found gaps in the Papua New Guinea interior defence to run in a further three tries while Tambwera added two more penalties. Winger Stephen Hunduza flashed some great individual skills to claim an 80-metre try in the 55th minute, breaking the Papuan resistance for good and bringing the score to 24-8 after two previous penalties from Tambwera.

Centre Riaan O’Neill and flanker Andrew Rose widened the floodgates with loping tries through the middle of the Papuan defence while conversions from Tambwera and fly half Tichifara Makwanya rounded out the scoring at 38-11.

Zimbabwe coach Cyprian Mandenge was pleased to cap off a fruitful week with a win, saying, “We are improving with every game. We got a result today, but there are a lot of areas we want to polish. We are losing too much possession and some of our decision-making was poor.

“But it’s good to finish with a win. We didn’t win last year, so I’m happy. There is some progress, but our big problem is that we lack game time. This is only our fourth game of 2016 and that’s not good enough. We want to play more games, which is why tournaments like this are so important,” Mandenge added.

“The teams in Africa are gaining ground on us. Kenya is playing a lot of games and they beat us this year in the African Cup. We aren’t the bullyboys anymore so we need more games so we can start challenging again. This is a higher standard than the Africa Cup, but we believe we can beat the teams here, especially if we can get more game time,” Mandenge added.

Papua New Guinea coach Sydney Wesley shared Mandenge’s assessment of the competition: “We can take a lot from this tournament. The standard of the other teams will go a long way towards developing our rugby. It is a lot tougher than our competition back home, the biennial FORU tournament.”

“This week has helped us identify some areas to work on. We need to improve our set piece and our scrums and lineouts. We will work hard on these areas leading up to the FORU Cup next year. Hopefully we will perform well there and get an invite back to this tournament. I am sure that with more game time we would come back a lot better and stronger,” Wesley added.

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Kenya Beat Hong Kong in First ODI

Hong Kong missed a golden opportunity to push their claims for top spot in the ICC World Cricket League Championship losing by three wickets to Kenya in Nairobi in the first of two ODI’s.

The key point in the match came when Hong Kong on 214-5 with nine overs remaining were looking to post a really challenging target instead suffered a dramatic batting collapse to be all out for 222. Kenya’s captain Rakeb Patel did the damage during that period taking 5-16 off 6 overs.

Kenya too almost lost their cool, collapsing from 140-1 to 171-6 before a rain delay saw them collect their thoughts and pass the reduced target of 200 with 13 balls and three wickets to spare.

For Hong Kong, Anshuman Rath starred with the bat, scoring 90 off 92 balls, which included a century partnership with fellow 19-year-old Shahid Wasif (44 off 61). This partnership helped the innings recover from the cheap losses of Babar Hayat (24) and Nizakat Khan (4), while Kinchit Shah played a cameo at the top of the order, scoring 34 off 17 balls.

With the ball, wickets were shared, with Ehsan Khan 2-44 returning the best figures.

Coach Simon Cook was left fuming with his side’s inability to finish the match from a strong position.

“It’s frustrating because you get to a point in a game where we could have accelerated and taken the game away from Kenya but unfortunately we’ve been guilty of losing critical moments in games and we lost that critical moment today,” Cook said.

“We didn’t capitalise on the good work done by Anshuman and Shahid, which is very disappointing. We have a lower order that can be explosive, which we saw in the 1st ODI against PNG, but it’s just getting them to do it more consistently.”

“We had opportunities to win this in the field as well – we dropped a couple of chances and took a wicket off a no ball,” Cook added. “It’s hard to make changes when it’s your lower that didn’t get the runs and that’s not their job. So you can’t drop a bowler because they’ve not got runs. So we will need to reflect on the performance and look at options who we can bring in.”

Cook continued “This was a perfect opportunity to come here and get to the top of the World Cricket League Championship and take the pressure off ourselves but this loss puts us right in the thick of the pack. Sunday is now a must win game – we need to treat it as such. The positive from today is that we didn’t play well and nearly pulled off a win.”

Sunday’s match will be the second and final match of the tour before Hong Kong return home on Monday.

Additional reporting and image: HK Cricket

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 19-20 November, 2016

Kyrö Napue Gin Launch @ Momotaro – 16 November, 2016

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Kyro-Napue-Gin-Momotaro-2016/i-RKdXK6c

The rye-based Kyrö Napue Gin from Isokyrö, Finland celebrated it’s local launch with a party and tasting session at Momotaro. Founder Miika Lipiäinen was in town to showcase the distillery’s award winning Napue Gin and Tonic and talk more about the gin’s rye source and natural botanicals. Available locally from Euro Food Linkers HK Limited
Click on any photo for the full gallery.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Kyro-Napue-Gin-Momotaro-2016/i-DdMfP4v

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Kyro-Napue-Gin-Momotaro-2016/i-5Jk8Lxj

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Kyro-Napue-Gin-Momotaro-2016/i-mWC5g4j

MTR Launches International Toilet Tourism Awards

Ahead of UN International Toilet Day on 19 November, MyTravelResearch.com announces the “Toilet Tourism Awards” to highlight the close link between toilets and successful tourism.

The aim of the awards is to show the link between adequate provision of good toilets and success in a visitor economy reliant on tourists, and to raise awareness of sanitation and toilet provision, especially in developing economies.

The UN says that inadequate toilet facilities cause disease, environmental health challenges, increased mortality, lack of productivity at work and security compromises for women. One in ten people still resort to open defecation daily. The UN is seeking to create adequate toilet provision for everyone by 2030.

The availability and quality of toilets impacts tourism in developed and lesser-developed economies. “Our focus is strictly on the overlap between toilets and tourism. That’s where we can make a positive contribution,” says Bronwyn White, co-founder of MTR.

In the Toilet Tourism Awards, the winners will be in six categories: Overall Winner, Best Tourism Economic Contributor (for when people stop at a toilet in a destination and stay on to spend more than a penny), Best Location (where the toilets have views and maybe considered an attraction in themselves), Best Design (architectural brilliance in toilets, visual design and creativity), Best Accessible Toilet, Quirkiest Toilet Experience (relating to local heritage, fun, or otherwise noteworthy).

From 19 November, toilet owners in tourism destinations around the world, submissions close 1 April 2017. The winners will be announced at the Travel and Tourism Research Association international conference in Quebec, Canada, 22 June 2017.

“This is the chance for toilet owners in tourism to wipe the floor with the competition,” says White. “I like to think of the Toilet Tourism Awards as the tourism industry’s own Game of Thrones.”

Russia and Hong Kong Win

On match day two in the Cup of Nations Russia pounded Papua New Guinea, 49-19, and Hong Kong beat Zimbabwe 34-11. The victors setting up a rematch of last year’s winner-take-all clash on the 19 November, at Hong Kong Football Club.

After a narrow 19-15 win over Zimbabwe in the opening round, defending champions Russia recorded a comprehensive, seven-try victory over Papua New Guinea. Russia captain and flanker Viktor Gresev again proved an unstoppable force; scoring a hat trick of tries to add to the brace he collected against Zimbabwe. Gresev now leads all scorers with five tries over two matches.

Gresev’s first try came in the third minute as the massive Russian pack brought its weight to bear early on. Sustained Russian pressure forced Papua New Guinea to concede a penalty try for repeated infringements at the ruck in the 12th minute, before Gresev claimed his second try in the 19th minute.

Papua New Guinea got on the board with a try against the run of play from winger John Ephraim in the 21st minute. The unsuccessful conversion left them trailing 21-5.

Scrumhalf Anton Ryabov found space on the fringes of a ruck to cross over for a try in the 26th minute while hooker Valery Tsnobiladze added a fifth try moments later.

Centre Tisa Kautu added three points for Papua New Guinea with a penalty shortly before half-time as Russia took an unassailable 35-8 lead into the break.

Russia were less convincing in the second half, while Papua New Guinea got off to a flying start, scoring 11 unanswered points from two penalties by Kautu and a try to flyhalf Richard Aitsi to close the gap to 35-19.

It was the second straight match where the Russian defence went walkabout after they let Zimbabwe climb back into the round 1 match. Unsurprisingly, it was Gresev who helped quell any nerves as he and Ryabov added their third and second tries respectively to seal a 49-19 win. Flyhalf Yury Kusnarev was perfect with the boot, converting all seven of Russia’s tries.

In the second match of the doubleheader at Kings Park, the hosts jumped ahead to a 17-3 half-time lead before going on to win 34-11 win, collecting a second bonus point of the tournament to stay at the top of the table after two rounds.

A dominant set piece performance by Hong Kong gave the host the run of play in the first half. Prop Alex Ng Wai-shing scored the home side’s first try in the third minute, collecting the ball at the base of a ruck beneath the posts before crashing over from in close.

With Hong Kong’s forward pack dominating early on, the speedy backline had ample ball to work with and quickly set about testing Zimbabwe’s conditioning and defence. Although battling bravely, gaps soon appeared in the visitors’ defence and fullback Alex McQueen was the first to exploit the space when he finished off a lengthy attacking phase to touch down in the corner in the eight minute.

Hong Kong flyhalf Ben Rimene was also perfect with the boot, adding both conversions and a penalty in the first half to push his side to a 17-0 lead after 25 minutes. Zimbawe’s first points came from a well-struck penalty from flyhalf Lenience Tambwera in the 30th minute to leave the score at 17-3 at halftime.

Zimbabwe had an early lift after halftime when Tambwera nailed his second penalty in the 41st minute but Rimene replied four minutes later as the sides exchanged three-pointers.

No.8 Thomas Lamboley capped his Hong Kong debut with a try in the 53rd minute as the rangy forward took out a well-deserved reward for 80 minutes of high work rate and hard graft. Rimene’s conversion pushed Hong Kong’s lead to 27-6 with 25 minutes remaining.

Alex McQueen capped another quietly devastating performance when he completed his brace in the 62nd minute with Rimene’s conversion a formality.

Centre Riaan O’Neal spoiled Hong Kong’s final patch of play as he flashed a clean pair of heels to cross over in the 65th minute but Tambwera’s conversion was off the mark. Final score 34-11.

“It was really good to get the win,” said Hong Kong captain Nick Hewson, “But we were a bit disappointed not to take some of the chances we created, especially in the second half.

“Our set piece was good, we had a high percentage of possession and the backs were creating opportunities tonight so hopefully we can execute a few more of those chances on Saturday,” Hewson added.

“Now we can go into the game against Russia with a bit of confidence. We know it is another step up, but we are well ahead of where we were last year. We are creating more plays, our ball carriers are better and our defence is stronger. We gave them points off of our mistakes today and we can’t afford that against Russia,” Hewson added.

Russia beat Hong Kong 31-12 in last year’s effective final, the rematch takes place at 5pm on 19 November at Hong Kong Football Club. Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea will play in the curtain raiser at 2pm, entry is free.

Hong Kong v Zimbabwe:
1. Adam Fullgrabe, 2. Ben Roberts*, 3. Alex Ng Wai-Shing, 4. Finlay Field, 5. Adrian Griffiths, 6. Nick Hewson (Captain), 7. Toby Fenn, 8. Thomas Lamboley*, 9. Jamie Hood (vice Captain), 10. Ben Rimene, 11. Marcus Ramage*, 12. Lee Jones, 13. Ally Maclay, 14. Ryan Meacheam, 15. Alex Mcqueen, 16. Jw Markley, 17. Jack Parfitt, 18. Rohan Cook, 19. Will Eversfield, 20. James Cunningham, 21. Cado Lee Ka-To, 22. Rowan Varty, 23. Edmund Rolston.
*Hong Kong debut

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Hong Kong Gets Plugged

Hong Kong, in IFC and ICC, already has two giant penises masquerading as gateposts to Victoria Harbour. Now we have a butt plug too. I guess it’s appropriate with China already having ball gagged the media and the transcendent one hand-cuffing elected legislators who stand up against the rape of Hong Kong by the CCP.

To salve it’s obviously fragile ego New World is to destroy the feng shui of the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront with a butt plug style building that just screams of insecurity.

You do have to wonder if the government department chief who approved the design is blind. Then again, even a blind man could see that the building is so out of character with the rest of Tsim Sha Tsui that it must destroy the feng shui of the harbour.

In that location New World you could have built something iconic and low-level to complement the harbour and enhance the skyline… But your ceo’s insecurity and fragile ego required the stroking of a tall ugly building to match the other tall dicks in the city.

New World, your new monstrosity is like the child standing alone and ignored by all who screams and screams for attention “Hey look I have a big dick too.” Yeah, maybe you do, but it looks more like a giant anal plug and will become the most reviled building in the city. No only because it destroys the harmony and beauty of our city and harbour, but for the giant shadow of corruption that it will cast over the city. The interests of the rich connected few trumping the benefits and wishes of the majority.

Not that New World give a shit about that… as long as the money rolls in and they can scream “Look at me, my butt plug is as big as your penis!”